1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to multi-chip modules and, particularly, to multi-chip modules including a first semiconductor die with one or more other semiconductor dice connected directly thereto in a flip-chip fashion. The present invention also relates to methods for assembling these multi-chip modules. In addition, the present invention relates to semiconductor device packages including the inventive multi-chip modules and to methods for forming such packages.
2. State of the Art
Accompanying the trend toward manufacturing computers and other electronic devices of ever increasing speed and ever decreasing size is the need for semiconductor device components of ever increasing capabilities and, thus, having an increased number of features that consume the same or a lesser amount of space.
Multi-chip modules are one example of an approach that has been taken in the semiconductor device industry to increase the feature density of semiconductor devices. Known multi-chip modules typically include a plurality of semiconductor dice that may be electrically connected to one another indirectly by way of carrier substrates to which each of the dice are electrically connected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,535 (hereinafter “the '535 Patent”), issued to Brandenburg on Jun. 22, 1999, discloses a multi-chip module including a daughter board with several semiconductor dice flip-chip bonded thereto. The daughter board includes contact pads located outside of a periphery of an area where the semiconductor dice are flip-chip bonded to facilitate flip-chip connection of the multi-chip module to a mother board with the dice of the multi-chip module being located between the daughter board and the mother board.
Another type of multi-chip module is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,436 (hereinafter “the '436 Patent”) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,101 (hereinafter “the '101 Patent”), issued to Kuhn on Feb. 17, 1998 and Aug. 11, 1998, respectively. Both the '436 and '101 Patents disclose packaged multi-chip modules that include a plurality of semiconductor dice. Each package includes a substrate bearing conductive traces, to which each of the semiconductor dice are electrically connected. The semiconductor dice may be electrically connected to the substrate by way of wire bonding or flip-chip bonding. The substrate, which may comprise a flex circuit, wraps around and is supported by both surfaces of a die paddle. The conductive traces of the substrate are electrically connected to leads by bond wires. Bond pads of the semiconductor dice may also be directly electrically connected to the leads of the package.
U.S. Pat. No. RE36,613, issued to Ball on Mar. 14, 2000, discloses a multi-chip module including stacked semiconductor dice. While the dice are stacked one on top of another, they are not directly connected to one another, but rather to leads of a package including the multi-chip module.
Other types of multi-chip modules that include one or more semiconductor dice that are flip-chip bonded to a carrier are also known. None of these multi-chip modules, however, includes semiconductor dice that are directly flip-chip bonded to one another with the subsequent assembly then being flip-chip mounted to a substrate.
Keeping in mind the trend toward faster computers and other electronic devices, the use of intermediate conductive elements, such as wire bonds, and the conductive traces of carrier substrates to electrically connect the semiconductor dice of a multi-chip module is somewhat undesirable since the electrical paths of these types of connections are typically lengthy and, consequently, limit the speed with which the semiconductor dice of the multi-chip module may communicate with one another. The affects that these types of connections in conventional multi-chip modules have on the speed at which an electronic device, such as a computer, operates are particularly undesirable when one of the semiconductor dice of the multi-chip module is a microprocessor and the other semiconductor dice of the multi-chip module are semiconductor devices with which the microprocessor should quickly communicate.
The so-called system-on-a-chip (SOC) has been developed to increase the speed with which two semiconductor devices, such as a logic device (e.g., a microprocessor) and a memory device, communicate. Each of the semiconductor devices of a SOC structure are fabricated on the same substrate, providing very short connections with reduced contact resistance between two or more devices. The speed with which the two devices communicate is, therefore, increased relative to the speeds with which the separate semiconductor devices of conventional assemblies communicate.
While system-on-a-chip technology provides much quicker communication between different semiconductor devices, the fabrication processes that are used to make different types of semiconductor devices, such as logic and memory devices, differ significantly. In fact, the best processes to fabricate similar structures on different types of semiconductor devices may be very different. Moreover, the organization and locations of structures on different types of semiconductor devices may also differ significantly. Thus, it is not only difficult to merge two or more processes to facilitate the simultaneous fabrication of two or more different types of semiconductor devices on the same substrate, such simultaneous fabrication also requires process compromises for one or more of the types of semiconductor devices being fabricated, which may increase fabrication costs and decrease the performance of one or more of the different types of simultaneously fabricated semiconductor devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-chip module with increased speed of communication between the semiconductor dice thereof, the semiconductor dice of which may be fabricated by existing processes.